by Ruby Wolff
I lean back and look at him for a moment. As much as I want to get my hands on him, I’m waiting. I want him to feel everything he did to Alice.
“So, this week, I spent my time finding this man, and when I told him what I wanted, he said yes before I even offered him anything in return. This man made every prisoner his bitch, and now you're going to be his bitch.” I kneel in front of him and grab his face so he looks at me. “You touched my queen, and now I’m going to make sure you remember how it felt for her.” I push him on the floor when I hear the door open behind me. Standing up straight, I say, “I’d like you to meet Tracey. He’ll be your master for the next hour.” Harvey fights against the chains, and I hear the guys laughing behind me. I take a step back as the door opens again. “Harvey, he likes it when you fight.”
I leave the basement, and we make our way through the corridor. I lean against the wall for a moment. I want to hear Harvey scream. I want the sound drilled into my fucking head.
“Here” Pike hands me his smoke, and I look back down the corridor at the door when I hear Harvey screaming no. A smile forms on my mouth as I bring the cigarette to my lips.
“Never thought I would miss seeing the devil.” Warren leans on the wall next to me, and I look at him. “How long are you planning for this to continue? What’s the plan with Bruce and Mitch?”
“I’m waiting for dad to get here and then we can all talk about it. If no one agrees with the plan, we sit and change it,” I say. My smile gets bigger the moment Harvey screams, and fuck is it a scream.
Before he dies, I’m going to make sure he feels everything and more of what he did to Alice.
“I’m going to let Tracey have some fun.” Pushing myself off the wall, I walk back into the house. I told dad to meet us in the office. “Is there anything I need to know about family businesses?” I ask when we get to the house.
“No.” Everyone says in sync, and I leave it at that for now.
I stop and let Warren and Pike walk past me. “Vinny, a moment?” I ask as I stop him. I haven’t had a chance to talk to him about going to America. Alice is dead set on him going and living his life there, but for some reason, he isn’t going. “You want to tell me what’s happening?”
“Nothing. Alice just needs to drop the subject, and we’ll be fine.” Vinny stops when I start laughing. We both know she isn’t a girl to drop the subject if she doesn’t want to. “She wants me to move back to America and make things work with Becky, but Becky’s dating someone else. To be honest, I’m happy with my life here, so she has to just like it,” Vinny says.
I watch him for a moment. He’s always been easy to read, and I want to make sure he’s staying because he wants to, not because he’s still worried about Alice.
“Are you saying you don’t want to take a step back from the family? We don’t really do things by the book.”
“I was hoping I could stay within the business. I know you’re a man who doesn’t trust—”
“You protected Alice when I couldn’t. I trust you the same as I do Warren and Pike. Welcome to the family.” I extend my hand out for him to shake and, without thinking, he takes mine.
***
Everyone in the family agreed to what I wanted to do. Not one person fought me on it. That made everything work better for me. The last few days, Harvey has been taken by Tracey almost three times a day. I’ve been in there most of the day doing something different to him each time. I’ve had Doc come in to tell me how much more he can take. This morning, he said if I do anything else to him, he’ll die, so my big plan will end today.
I was hoping for more fun, but I’ve done so much to him. I’ve beaten the living shit out of him to the point I was covered in his blood, and that’s been the best part of the last few days. He's been eaten alive from rats, too. Those screams were good ones. My dad stopped that one quicker than I wanted, but Harvey had lost consciousness, so that was fine. It was like nails being pulled out, and that was just the starter. Then, it was boiling water poured over him, cold water on him straight after… My list goes on. Harvey is truly, fucking broken.
The door opens, and I walk closer to Harvey. I laugh to myself at him, curled up into a ball. Even my queen put up a stronger fight than this fuck.
Kicking him awake, I watch him slowly turning to face me. Both swollen eyes open and look like they’re about to pop out. I place my hand on the side of his face and push it hard against the wall, making him yowl in pain. He’s so weak.
I grab his face. “How’s your arse feeling? Did it feel good?” I hiss at him, wanting him to remember Tracey touching him. Harvey starts to say something, but all that escapes him is blood. Oh, I did enjoy ripping his teeth out. “You got people to beat Alice, then you touched her, and yet, she was still fighting. You, on the other hand, you are pathetic. Are you looking forward to dying?”
I hear nothing from him and look over my shoulder at my family as I stand back up.
Once Tracey was finished, I told him to get out of London, and that if I ever see him in London again, I will shoot him on the spot.
“It’s time,” my dad says, and I turn to face Harvey again.
“Shall we go see how the Midlands are?” I ask Harvey, and his head snaps up, his gaze locking with mine. Today, I’m taking down the whole family and making sure no one dares to cross me again.
I know what I have planned for tonight is something I’d never do in public, but this was the only way to show people. If you cross my family, the devil will burn you to the ground. So, I got Max to talk to our men in the Ministry of Justice to work something out for me. No police will come close to where I’m going. They’ve told us everything will be looked after, and someone will be there ready to clean everything up. That made me happy since I don’t have a plan B.
Pike grabs Harvey, who can’t even stand on his own, and starts dragging him out the room. Pike grabs a handful of his hair and pulls him down the corridor.
When we reach the cars, I turn a little and see Alice standing by the door. I nod, and she returns a small smile.
I have no idea what went through Alice’s head when she asked if she could see Harvey. I gave her one look to say no, and she never spoke about it again. I still don’t know why she wanted to see him, and I don’t care, either.
Pike and Vinny both said I should let her, but I told them to fuck off. The hell he put her through, there was no way I was even going to let him be in the same room as her.
I turn to all my men, my dad, Pike, Warren, Vinny Craig, and every man who works for me. I wasn’t going to take any chances today. I don’t know if the Midlands will fight with us tonight, but if they do, I’m ready.
Tonight, the war ends.
Everyone gets in the car, and I sit with Pike and get ready for what the night will bring.
The excitement of what’s about to happen runs through me as we pull up to the pub where the Midlands are every day. I sent one of my pawns to get a job in the pub, and it surprised me with how easy it was for him to get it. They did no checks on him. I had to laugh to myself at the thought of them wanting to take over London. They can’t even look after what they have now.
My dad and I are the first to get out of the car, and the moment we step out, the Midlands men are out with their guns pointing at us.
My men get out of the vans to show them I have more than enough men with me, and their guns don’t scare me.
“You all know who I am, so you have two choices. One, put your guns down and you can live, or two, stay and fight, then die and put your family in danger,” I shout. My gaze moves to each of the men, and they all stare at me for a moment.
I turn my head to Vinny, letting him know to get Harvey out of the car. Maybe they need to see what I’ll do to them if I get my hands on them.
I return my glare to the men and see the fear in their eyes. As Harvey’s pulled out of the car, I see guns being lowered and men taking a step back.
That’s a lot more men than I expected. It’s just another way
to show that the Midlands hire arseholes who can’t fight.
My eyes move behind the men, and I see Bruce and Mitch running over as Vinny throws Harvey on the floor in front of me.
I look around and see more men are starting to back down. The devil inside me can't help but smile as fear spreads through them all. “You thought you could start a war with us, take my queen, and I was going to sit back and do nothing?” I shout, making sure they can hear me. Mitch moves his gaze to me, and I just smile at him. “Now I have your son. I just have to figure out which order I will kill you in.” I take a step forward and glance over at Vinny, indicating that he should follow me. What I’m about to do, I’m doing for Vinny. He needs to do this. I stand in front of Bruce and stare at him, dead in the eyes. “You came into my bar and said London was there for the taking, so why haven’t you taken it?” I’m returned with silence. “You took someone my girl loved, and today, I’m going to kill you.”
I take two steps back and smile as Bruce lifts his gun. Before he can do anything, a gun is fired. Bruce screams, and his gun drops to the floor.
Vinny punches him, knocking him to the floor. The second he looks up, Vinny pulls the trigger. The bullet hits between Bruce's eyes and I watch as his lifeless body hits the ground.
I look over at Mitch as I begin walking back to my family. “If you know the Frost family, you know we kill all the family but the leader. Now I’m thinking about what to do with you,” I say.
Mitch looks between my dad and me. I light up a cigarette and wait for him to do something, but nothing’s happening. None of his men are fighting for him.
“Before I kill Harvey, I want him to see what I’ve done to his family for touching my girl,” I say and watch Pike and Warren walk over to Mitch. He looks between them, and I can smell the fear coming from him.
Mitch tries to move away from Warren and Pike, but my men circle around him, giving him nowhere to run. Warren grabs him, and Mitch pleads with him to let him go.
Warren starts punching and kicking him until he’s on the floor, and then Pike pours petrol all over him. Harvey moves to help his dad, but I kick him to make sure he sees what I’m about to do.
Warren and Pike take a step back, and I kneel close to Mitch. “Don’t worry, I'm not going to kill you. I want you to see me killing your other son first, and then you will live the rest of your life knowing you crossed Angel Frost,” I say before throwing my cigarette at him. I watch as he lights up in flames.
We all stand there for a moment before my men take down the flames. I could have easily just watched him burn to death, but I want him to live. I want him to see the murder of his last son. I want him to see that he fucking messed with the wrong family. Once this is all done and the doctors tell him they can’t do anything for the burn mark, I give him a week, tops, before he kills himself.
“Now that Harvey has seen the death of all his family, there really isn’t anything left for him.” I turn around, taking my gun out and looking at Harvey, who’s staring at his dad on the ground.
I bring out the gun in front of me and wait just that small moment until his eyes lift to meet mine. Then, I pull the trigger and watch his body hit the ground. I take another shot to make sure the fucker is dead, then I turn around to face all the men.
“Anyone of you messes with my family or me, this will be your fate,” I say.
I walk over to the car and sit in the passenger seat. This war started because they wanted to take my city, then they hurt my queen, but I sure as hell finished it.
No family will dare to touch the Frost family, and if they do, we'll kill every single one of them because family don’t let each other wander in the dark alone.
Epilogue 1
Angel
6 Months Later
I stand by the window, looking down at the packed bar. It took a while to get everything back into order. My guns are back on track, and everything’s shipping out like normal. The underground fights have gotten busy, and Craig’s in full swing looking after that with me. At the moment, we’re holding a fight every night, but I want to slowly bring that back down to two fights a week.
Just like I thought, Mitch killed himself in hospital after one day, and we’ve not heard a word from anyone in the Midlands, and we won’t either.
Alice has finally been able to walk out of the house without looking over her shoulder that they’ll come. She has a lot of my men with her, too. She might not have anyone looking for her anymore, but I have enough families who’d be happy to use her against me. It’d be stupid of them to do that, though, as I’ll do to them as I did to the Midlands.
I walk back over to the desk as the family walks in for our daily meeting. Everyone takes a seat as I stand behind my chair.
Pike, as he has been lately, will be in charge. If there is something I can’t get to, he does it. I’ve made him the main man to talk to about the guns. I know he’ll make sure nothing messes up there, and he tells me whenever there’s a family who’re trying to get in the way. So far, we are fine, and nothing is getting in the way.
“Anything I need to know?” I ask them all as I light a cigarette.
“We have a family who wants to fight another family they’re having trouble with. They’re willing to pay half a million to get this fight done,” Craig says
I look over at him to explain what this family’s fighting over so I can make a decision on where to have it. “Set it up,” I say.
It feels good to go back to what the family does and not have the craziness of the last year around us anymore.
“The club’s doing really well. Vinny had to kick some people out the other day, but it’s busy, and the girls are happy. Nothing to report there,” Warren says.
I look over at Vinny. I spoke to Dad and Warren, and told them Vinny wanted to stay here and be a part of the family, and that if they both agreed, I wanted him to have half of the club. He needed to be part of what was happening. He can’t just get everything, but he has to start somewhere.
They said they were happy as long as Gwen was happy with that, since it was Elijah and Warren’s business. Gwen said Vinny was a great man, and she believed he’d be able to do as good of a job as Elijah. I spoke to Vinny, he agreed, and we started up his own Frost family emergency fund. He’s part of this family. No backing out now.
“The trafficking?” I ask, looking back at Warren. I never thought I’d see my little brother work so hard for something, but he’s really looking into this. Elijah and Grandad must be having a toast. I’m sure they’re as proud of him as I am.
He’s stopped two trucks now, and he’s trying to find out where the girls are coming from. So far, no one is talking, and the girls are too scared.
“Nothing. Everything I’m finding is leading to a dead end. I’m not even sure where I should be going at the moment,” Warren says.
I look over at my dad to see if he has anything to say about it, but Dad really has been taking a step back from the business. He told me he’d like to spend more time with his grand-babies, and I’m not going to push him into coming back.
“Do you know if any more shipments are coming? I ask. I haven’t got involved very much. I only step in when Warren needs help. This is Warren’s, and he should do it. I can see a change in him already when he sees the girls. Hate runs through him, and he wants to find who’s behind it.
“I’m looking, and I’ll let you all know when I think we should make a move,” he says, and we leave it at that.
We all know Warren will call us. There was a night I got a call from him, asking me to meet him so we could get a truck. I’ve been there, and I’ll be there when he calls.
“Nice to have everything running smoothly for a change,” I say with a smile, and they all start laughing.
I know I’ve lost family in the war we fought, and it’ll never sit right with me, but I know this family is still strong, and those lost are looking down on us.
My phone rings and I dig it out of my pocket. I ans
wer without looking at the ID.
“Angel, we’re on the way to the hospital,” Alice’s head of security says.
“Who?” I ask in a panic.
“Alice’s water broke—”
“She’s not due for another three weeks,” I shout into the phone as I grab my jacket and throw the car keys to Pike. I already knowing everyone will be following us there.
“I know. Drew and Gwen are with us.”
“Get off the fucking phone and get her there. I’m on my way,” I say before ending the call. I open the car door and take in a deep breath.
I thought my life was crazy now, and it’s only going to get crazier from here. I can’t wait. Alice is my queen, and she’s about to give me two beautiful princesses. There’s nothing in life more perfect than today.
Epilogue 2
Alice
One week Later
I stand by the door, watching Angel playing with the girls. I never in a million years thought I'd see the day that Angel Frost would be so soft with anyone.
He wakes up during the night with me and plays with Aiyana while I feed Asena. He’s so hands-on with them that it almost makes you wonder how he can be the biggest gangster in London.
We both thought a lot about what the girls’ names would be. I wanted something different, and Angel wanted them to both have names starting with the letter A, like us. Vinny gave us the name for Aiyana. He said he’d seen it somewhere and he thought it was beautiful. Then Angel and I thought of Asena, and I love them both so much.
“So, my beautiful girls, now you know you won’t ever be allowed to leave the house. I think it’s time we talk about a security team for—”
“They’re a week old,” I interrupt. “I don’t think they’re going anywhere anytime soon.” I walk into the nursery and wrap my arms around him from behind and give him a kiss on the cheek.